June 09, 2011

Choking Again??: The unbeatable team finally due to win their cup after years of playoff collapse are at it again. The team with more skill has been badly out player by the team with more heart. With Luongo playing poorly and Hamhuis out, do they have what it takes to bounce back as the series heads back to Canada.

Boston is playing tougher hockey right now and the Injury to Hamhuis and the suspension of rome leaves them down 2 of their first 6 on defense. Last night while watching the game, one of the announcers said it was H. Sedins first shot of the series. I honestly think Boston could wrap this up in 6

Credit to the Bruins for their well deserved victories, but expect the officiating to be skewed in the Canucks favor in game 5 (NHL officiating pattern is starting to remind me of NBA officiating).

Canucks played the last 2 games as if they had no confidence in their goaltending. Although they had a lot of shots, they often peeled back rather than pressuring loose pucks ... guess I might do the same if I knew my goaltender could only stop 7 shots out of 10.

I'm a Freemason, and they have told us all who will win this series. I might be killed if I tell this to those who are not members of the Craft, but I do know that the Stanley Cup will be skated around the ice at TD Garden in Boston.

Which team is unbeatable here? Vancouver certainly looked very beatable when they needed seven games to finish off Chicago. They haven't looked unbeatable this series. And who determined Boston has more heart than Vancouver?

I did. On paper, Boston should not be on the ice with them but since the shot on Horton, Boston is just playing with more fire. They are winning battles in the corner, they are winning loose pucks, they are getting turnovers all over the place. Maybe Vancouver is running out of gas, but Boston is flying around. The Horton knockout just flipped a switch.

When Boston's forecheck gets going it seems almost impossible for Vancouver to get the puck out of their end. I don't know how the Canucks managed 38 shots when it seemed like most of the game was played in their end, on defense. Boston has done this in every series. They keep it in the offensive end for extended periods of time with their nonstop forechecking. Unless you're a Boston fan it gets kind of annoying to watch since there is hardly any back and forth.

Boston has been full value for their victories, especially in terms of effort. But if the Canucks PP reverts to their high standard then they will win this series handily.

There is a fine line between "grit" and "dirty" though and the Bruins are by far the chippiest team I have seen in years. The constant hacking at Henrik's bum leg is just about the nastiest thing I've seen in the game. I really really wish the officials would clamp down on the off-the-puck stick-work on both sides. It has zero place in the game and can't really be defended or nuanced the way actual hockey plays can be.

Luongo has mental lapses that infect the whole team - see the last few playoff seasons. While it seems like Thomas also an have bad games, he hasn't had one yet in the finals and that's all that counts.

I'm saying they would prefer to and it would be to their huge advantage if it was clean hockey settled by skill and speed, and the Bruins know that. Hence, what we see, which is pretty much gutter hockey of a kind I thought the league had left behind.

Obviously the Bruins would be crazy not to do what they are doing (crazy, or have integrity, I guess), and scrums or roughing or whatever is fine, but the cheap hacking, yeah, that's pretty much all Bruins, with situational retaliation.

I'm not happy with the Bruins' dirty pokes - let Vancouver play dive and take their cheap shots - but the Thomas/Burrows mixup was still funny. At first I thought it was just Thomas throwing a cheap shot, but then they showed Burrows whacking his stick to start the whole thing off.

I don't know what this guy was watching, but I saw Vancouver pretty much get most of the play for three of the four games (but, what a game that was) and Tim Thomas doing his impression of Dominic Hasek. Only he's 40. And just as amazing.

Luongo played awful in game three - as did the entire team who maddeningly can't maintain intensity - but he was okay yesterday. They couldn't beat Thomas to save their lives. If he keeps it up - Boston wins. If he slips - It's Vancouver. And it's absolutely going seven. I still think Vancouver is the better team, but their assholes are puckered so much to the point that I have to imagine if they fart, they explode.

I did. On paper, Boston should not be on the ice with them but since the shot on Horton, Boston is just playing with more fire.

What paper are you looking at? I see a team that was the third seed in the east, with a Vezina finalist between the pipes and a Norris finalist on defense. I'd be very surprised if there were many people who thought Vancouver would walk all over Boston this series.

I'd be very surprised if there were many people who thought Vancouver would walk all over Boston this series.

I'll confess to being one of them, but that's just because I watched Boston's defensive zone coverage against Tampa. Holy shit, was it inconsistent. I thought the brothers Sedin would have a field day, Chara be damned. I honestly thought that the games would be high scoring affairs, with Vancouver's superior defense making the difference. Maybe Hamhuis is that good, or maybe I just can't pick winners worth a shit (as my history in SpoFi pools and such will attest to).

The Bruins on paper are not as good as Vancouver. But they do have more heart. Vancouver kinda thought they had this thing in the bag and were a little bit surprised when they got to Boston. And to whoever says Boston is the dirty team--what series are you watching??? Burrows bites and Horton gets knocked out from a blindside. Hockey is a tough sport and the Bruins are playing that way.

And to whoever says Boston is the dirty team--what series are you watching???

The one where the Bruins slash Bieksa in the back of the leg, and they shove their fingers into the face of Canuck players. The only way you can suggest that the Bruins are saints this series is to do so while wearing the bear costume for the commercials.

This series seems to be a revival of "old-time hockey" with alll of its good and bad points. I for one would rather see the slashes and cheap hits, as long as they are down low, than I would the head hunting. With a few exceptions, the shots to the legs don't result in potential career enders, but the head shots not only might end a career, they just might end a life.